USA > New York > Warren County > Warren county : a history and guide > Part 8
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Whether on the advice of Morris or not, Schuyler did, at this time, requisition supplies from the settlements. By his orders Quartermaster General Morgan Lewis seized practically all the horses and cattle, as well as huge quantities of oats, rye, corn, wheat, potatoes, and hay from the farms of Abraham Wing, his son-in-law Benjamin Phineas Babcock, James Higson, Andrew Lewis, Truelove Butler, William Robards, Benedict Brown and many other Warren County pioneers. In addition Abraham Wing's mills were dismantled, "25 Saws ... and other utensills necessary for the two Mills in Compleat Repair" being carried away. In 1789 the State liquidated claims for these war losses by remitting the quit rents owed on the lands of the claimants for the 25-year period from 1762 to 1787, and relieving them of any future quit rents.
Caught between American foraging and Indian terrorism there was little the non-combatant border settlers could do but seek refuge in southward flight. Most of the pioneers of Queensbury and Caldwell fled to their old homes in The Oblong, Dutchess County. An escort of militia, among them Solomon Parks, son of old Daniel of the Parks Mas- sacre, scoured the countryside for any horses and oxen that might have escaped army requisition. These were for the use of the women and children, w nose desire to escape was heightened by the sight of small bands of Indians in war paint dogging the line of flight.
"The roads were filled with fugitives," says one historian, "men, lead- ing little children by the hand, women pressing their infant offspring to their bosoms, hurrying forward in utmost consternation, from the scene of danger. Occasionally passed a cavalcade, two and even three mounted on a single steed, panting under its heavy load; sometimes carrying a mother and her child, while the father ran breathless by the horse's side. Then came a procession of carts drawn by oxen, laden with furniture hastily collected; and here and there, mingling with the crowd of vehicles, was seen many a sturdy husbandman followed by his household and driv- ing his domestic animals before him."
. In spite of the dangers from partisan strife and Indian raid in Warren County there is evidence that some few remained there "depending for
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safety upon their principles of non-resistance and their faith and reliance in God's protection." Among these were Abraham Wing and his family, for records show that Schuyler on July 26 wrote Major Gray of the Com- missary Department: "I have permitted him [Wing] to remain and consented that he should take back eight of his cows." A little later Colonel Christopher Yates communicated to Wing: "I have considered about your Sons Horse and give him leave to keep the Same until some Higher Power shall order it otherwise. I also grant you leave to keep a hunting gun in your house and forbid any one to take same without orders from the general."
Meanwhile Burgoyne quartered himself at the home of the self-styled Governor Skene and sent to England glowing accounts of his success. He had marched through the Champlain Valley in a week, had taken Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Skenesborough; he had trounced the rebels in the battles of Hubbardton and Fort Anne. It had been a hard pull at times, but now he had only to walk through that "rabble in arms" down on the Hudson to be in Albany in a few weeks. Through this rosy glow Burgoyne failed to see the impending shadow of disaster in the forest and across the heights of Old Saratoga.
If he had correctly estimated the resistance of the irate farmers aroused by his use of Indian allies, and the transport difficulties through swamp and forest below Skenesborough, Burgoyne would hardly have chosen the route over the Great Carry merely because it was the shorter. His British and Hessian regiments in their brilliant uniforms and heavy equipment, his officers with their wives, his camp followers, his piles of baggage, were a European army, suited to good roads and open fields. But the country- side before them had returned quickly to the wilderness from which, in truth, it had scarcely been wrested. The settlers had fled; their farms, robbed of crops and cattle by the "scorched earth" policy of Schuyler, were growing to weeds. The hundreds of Tories Skene had promised would render aid and comfort, failed to materialize, many being immo- bilized by bands of grim patriots who visited their homes, seized their rifles, and issued stern warnings of dire consequences to follow any assist- ance to Burgoyne.
The march became a nightmare. Schuyler dispatched General Nixon with 600 militia to destroy bridges, to fell trees across the road and to choke narrow places in Wood Creek with logs. Thus was wiped out what little semblance of a highway had ever existed. Heavy-booted grenadiers and infantrymen sank in the mud, tripped over brush, caught bayonets and coattails in thickets, roasted in a green hell in the day time to drop down at night exhausted but restless in a strange, chilly, insect-ridden world.
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When horses died of over-work and hunger, sweating men were forced to tug at cannon ropes. Sadly the officers saw their baggage sent back to Ticonderoga. Ten, fifteen, twenty days passed as the struggling army maintained a snail's pace only by the most back-breaking toil. Where was the Hudson? Was this dark wilderness of great trees that ever pressed in on them and thrust long arms in their path always to be ahead? Even the strongest faltered. Foreign soldiers longed for the open fields and the village streets of their homelands.
When at last, on July 30, that weary procession staggered out of the woods into the valley of the Hudson to see the silver-blue streak of river winding south between green hills, men wept with joy and rushed forward to throw themselves face downward in the blessed water. Little did they know the trials that still lay ahead. Delay in the advance had caused a desperate shortage of provisions. The countryside, stripped by the Ameri- cans as they retreated, provided no forage, and taking Fort Edward was a hollow triumph.
Though Schuyler's foes had scored only an empty victory, it provided occasion for politicians in a vacillating Congress to inveigh against him. The country in general did not yet understand the brilliant strategy of his retirement, and somewhat testily on July 26 he again wrote Wash- ington:
I find by letters from below, that an idea prevails that Fort Ed- ward is a strong and regular fortification. It was once a regular fortification, but there is nothing but the ruins of it left, and they are so utterly defenceless that I have frequently galloped my horse in on one side and out at the other. But when it was in the best condition possible, with the best troops to garrison it, and provided with every necessity, it would not have stood two days' siege after proper batteries had been opened. It is situated in a bottom on the banks of the river, and surrounded with hills from which the parade may be seen within point blank shot. I doubt not that it will be said that Fort Miller, Fort Saratoga, and Stillwater are considerable forti- fications, of neither of which is there a trace left although they still retain their names.
Five days later General Schuyler was ordered replaced and General Horatio Gates assumed the command. Ironically enough the victory that would have vindicated Schuyler was achieved before the tardy Gates joined his troops. Advised by Tories that the rebels were gathering im- mense stores at Bennington, Burgoyne detached the Hessians under Baum to capture them. As they had done at Hubbardton and Fort Anne, the sharp-shooting rebels, swift of foot, led by John Stark, seemed to spring from nowhere upon the heavily equipped, slow-moving Germans to shoot
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them down or take them captive. Unavailing reinforcements com- manded by Baum's colleague, Breyman, suffered heavy losses in a forced retreat. The plight of General Burgoyne and his army daily grew more unenviable.
Washington's proclamation asking help from the northern colonies was posted in every public square and read from every pulpit. From the Hudson, the Green Mountains, and the Valley of the Connecticut, farm- ers and shop keepers flocked to the American army. Indignation because of continued use of Indians to terrorize and burn in Queensbury, Kings- bury, and Fort Edward, was now brought to a climax as the gory tresses of beautiful Jane McCrea's scalp were exhibited in the settlements, at the Wing's Falls home of Content Wing Higson, a close friend of the murdered girl, and in the British camp, where David Jones, her fiance, was a Tory lieutenant. Instead of striking fear to the hearts of the colon- ists, who remembered only too well the redskin raids of the French and Indian War, it hardened and crystallized the patriot sentiments of an angry people, and sometimes drove the neutral or lukewarm to take a definite stand against Englishmen who, through their allies, warred on women and children. And when, too late, Burgoyne took his Indians to task and denounced their wanton killings, they all deserted him in his hour of greatest need.
Meanwhile the American army had grown to such proportions that it was able to detach General Lincoln with 1,500 Connecticut and New Hampshire militia to raid Burgoyne's extremely thin line of communica- tions which had been rerouted up Lake George and along the military road through Warren County. On August 8, the British general countered by sending three battalions of Hessians under their commander, Baron Rie- desel, to John's Farm near Halfway Brook, and moving the base of reserve supplies from Fort George to the more defensible Diamond Island, seven miles down Lake George. Defenses were erected, artillery posted, and a guard of two companies of the British 47th under Captain Aubrey took post there.
These precautions availed little. Fort Edward and Skenesborough were recaptured. Colonel John Brown's attempt to take Ticonderoga was re- pulsed, but he seized the outworks, released many prisoners, and captured a number of boats. Then, turning the vessels about, he attacked Diamond Island. Failing to dislodge the defenders, Brown beached and burned the boats and made good his retreat.
The end rapidly approached for Burgoyne. Hemmed in front and rear, his supplies and communications cut off, and the Battle of Saratoga lost, he laid down his arms on October 17, 1777. Rejoicing, many Warren
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County pioneers returned to rebuild their shattered settlements. On May 5, 1778, the annual meeting of the Town of Queensbury was held as usual.
Indeed the British defeat at Saratoga spelled the end of major campaign- ing in the north for three years. The frontier might have been at peace except for the partisan strife between hot-headed Patriots and Tories. This local conflict kept the region in even greater ferment than the incur- sions from Canada of guerrilla bands of British, Tories, and Indians.
During most of 1777, while Burgoyne's might rolled across the land, Tories had the upper hand, but the next spring Americans once again came into power and some among them determined to drive the Loyalists from the country. Folk like Wing and his peaceful Quakers of Queens- bury were perfectly willing to live in harmony with their neighbors and give to every man, Whig or Tory, a right to his own political opinion, but in the year 1778, neither the embittered Whigs nor the far from subdued Tories were in a tolerant frame of mind. As early as December 1777, John Younglove, Commissioner of Sequestrations for the Northern Depart- ment, wrote to the Committee of Safety: "There is likewise another set of men that took protection and then went home to their work; we want to know what to do with them, and concerning their estates. There is likewise a set of them that has been with Burgoyne through the campaign; and just before the capitulation, ran from him and came home, and now are devouring the provisions that the friends suffer for; and the populace is determined to drive them off or kill them. If something is not speedily done with them, we fear the consequence, if they are left amongst us."
What happened in some instances is disclosed by the correspondence of General John Stark, at this time commander of the northern armies. On May 21, 1778, he wrote to Colonel Safford, commandant at Fort Edward, whose militia apparently were taking sides with the Patriot hot-heads: "Doctor Smith complains that the troops at Fort Edward are turning out the inhabitants and destroying the buildings at that place. I should be glad that such disorders should be surpressed, and the inhabitants' prop- erty secured."
The following month General Stark wrote in the same vein to the President of the New Hampshire Congress: "They [ the people] do very well in the hanging way. They hanged nine on the 16th of May, on the 5th of June nine; and have one hundred and twenty in jail, of which, I believe, more than one-half will go the same way. Murder and robberies are committed every day in this neighborhood. So you may judge of my situation, with the enemy on my front, and the devil in my rear."
At this time occurred another of those incredible Tory journeys across Warren County's western wilderness, an exploit so bold and remarkable that it met no effective resistance by the Whigs of Tryon County. A
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band, more than 100 strong, composed of Loyalists, who, in 1776, had escaped with Sir John Johnson by this route from Johnstown to Canada, now returned for their families. Allowed to complete their arrangements and depart unmolested, they boldly attacked Patriot homesteads and took prisoners on their long northward march via the Hudson, overland to Lake George, and down Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence.
Almost simultaneously another party of Tories, one of whom was Gil- bert Harris, raided the isolated homes east of Queensbury near the shores of Lake George and captured Moses Harris, brother of Gilbert and father of the spy who had tricked his Uncle Gil during the Burgoyne campaign. Gilbert now insisted that his brother be taken a prisoner to Canada.
"He is an old man, and if he goes, the fatigue and exposure will kill him," remonstrated Andrew Rakely, leader of the Tories.
"Let him die then," responded the embittered Gil. But Rakely had his way and Moses was released on his promise under oath to say nothing of brother Gilbert's doings to his Whig neighbors.
The spring of 1779 opened ominously for the frontier when, in March, Skenesborough was plundered and burned, and its settlers were carried off to Canada by a raiding party of 130 Indians led by the rabid Tory, Joe Bettys. For a time following this event Fort Anne became the most northerly military outpost. The rest of the season must have remained relatively quiet, however, for the 1779 Queensbury Town Meeting was held as usual. Indeed enough interest was generated to elect for the first time in town history a supervisor to replace patriarch Abraham Wing. The office, nevertheless, remained in the family; for the new supervisor was Phineas Babcock, Wing's son-in-law.
In the opening months of 1780 alarms and rumors of invasion disturbed the frontier. Even the Quakers of Warren County moved behind the protection of Fort Edward, the town meeting in May being adjourned from Queensbury to the mansion of Judge William Duer at Fort Miller. At the same time Quartermaster Generals Morgan Lewis and Christopher Yates again dispatched foraging parties throughout the border to seize wheat, cattle, and other supplies for the destitute garrisons at Fort George, Fort Edward, and Fort Anne. By this time the Warren County pioneers, says Holden, "had little to carry or lose."
The rumors of invasion were no false alarms. A detachment of John- son's Greens and two hundred Tories and Indians, in all 500 men under Sir John Johnson, pursued their way in secret to Johnstown and accom- plished their purpose of recovering family plate from the cellar of the old Johnson mansion. Murdering, scalping and burning in the most ruthless fashion, this expedition was one of the worst outrages of the war. Pur-
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sued by hastily gathered American militia, Sir John retreated by way of the Sacandaga River and thence along the Indian trail around the base of Crane Mountain in the present town of Johnsburg to Crown Point on Lake Champlain, where his boats had been hidden. Governor George Clinton and the militia pursued, taking the route through Lakes George and Champlain, but the marauders escaped.
In June or July General Sir Frederick Haldimand, newly appointed Governor of Canada, and a force of 10,000 men had reoccupied Ticon- deroga, abandoned by the British under the terms of Burgoyne's surrender. Haldimand stirred up further border strife by using the land controversy over the Hampshire Grants in an intrigue to secure the return of the Green Mountain territory to British allegiance. He also allowed bands of Indians and Tories to make Ticonderoga their base for raids against the border settlements.
Travel on the military road through Warren County became unsafe. Colonel Seth Warner, returning to Fort Edward on horseback after an inspection of the portion of his regiment under Captain John Chipman stationed at Fort George, was ambushed near Bloody Pond by a party of these raiders. Two companion officers were instantly killed; Warner was wounded and his mount shot under him. Only by grasping the bridle of another horse and galloping away was the intrepid colonel able to escape capture or death. A few days later two young men, John High and Albert Baker of Sandy Hill, while taking some horses to the officers at Fort George, arrived at Halfway Brook to find the still warm bodies of four settlers who, while working there, had been murdered and scalped.
Almost without interruption these bloody forays continued all summer, forerunners of the attack in force which came in the fall. On the first day of October Major Christopher Carleton of the 29th British regiment with a detachment of 800 Regulars, a company of German levies, 200 Tories and 175 Indians, lightly equipped for swift attacks and rapid marches, embarked in 34 vessels at St. John's for the trip up the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain. His Loyalist battalion was commanded by Colonel Ebenezer Jessup of Warren County and contained Tories from every border neighborhood, who would act as guides and make certain that not even the most isolated farmhouse should escape the wave of destruction.
At Bulwagga Bay near Crown Point 400 Regulars, Tories, and Indians under Colonel John Munro, a Loyalist of Schenectady, were disembarked. Crossing a great stretch of Warren County wilderness by way of the old Indian trail through Johnsburg and around Crane Mountain to the Sacandaga, Munro laid waste the countryside, plundered Ballstown, now Ballston Spa, put the tiny settlement to the torch, and hastily re-
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treated northward. Meanwhile Carleton with the main force continued to the head of Lake Champlain, and, on October 8, landed at South Bay. He sent a few boats back to Ticonderoga, to be portaged into Lake George for carrying troops and supplies direct to Fort George, which he planned to attack three days later.
Marching rapidly southward he soon reached Fort Anne. Here a blockhouse of rough logs, surrounded by a stockaded inclosure, housed an untrained garrison of 75 militiamen from the neighborhood under Captain Adiel Sherwood of Sandy Hill. To make matters worse many of the defenders, including some from Warren County, had their wives and children with them. Scouts warned Sherwood of the approach of the enemy but there was little he could do except hurry a dispatch rider to notify Colonel Henry Livingston, commandant at Fort Edward, who failed to relay the message to Fort George.
On October 10, Carleton surrounded Fort Anne and demanded its surrender. When Sherwood refused, the British paraded before the garri- son in force, shot away part of the stockade with cannon fire, and set the barracks ablaze with hot shot. The American commander asked a parley. Assured that the women and children would be allowed to depart in safety he capitulated. His men were made prisoners and the fort burned.
Despite the obvious necessity for his surrender Sherwood, like Schuyler and St. Clair during Burgoyne's invasion, was denounced in official papers, and fireside gossip. It was even asserted that he was bribed during his parley with Carleton. Officialdom, even including General Washington, seems to have had little knowledge or appreciation of the conditions.
Carleton now split his force into two parts. The smaller one, made up mostly of Tories and Indians, ranged southward as far as Old Saratoga, slaughtering settlers who had not fled, burning houses and barns. A line of fires along the horizon guided the fugitives as they sought to escape the raiders.
Fort Edward was not attacked, and for this Colonel Livingston claimed great credit. Although he had but 70 men he sent a note addressed to Sherwood by a known Loyalist promising to come to the relief of Fort Anne with a large force. As he anticipated, the message fell into the hands of the enemy and, according to Livingston, averted an attack on his position. Indeed it is more than likely that Carleton had no intention of being delayed by an attack on any post that might offer resistance. His principal purpose was to devastate swiftly as much of the country as possible.
From Fort Anne, Carleton quickly led the balance of his force west- ward over the road across Warren County to French Mountain and the
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Military Road to Lake George. On the morning of October 11, his Indian scouts were observed near Bloody Pond by a messenger who had been dis- patched from Fort George to Fort Edward with a request for supplies.
An hour or two later the entire British force was attacked in the rear by a party of 48 men under Captain Thomas Sill, three-quarters of the garrison, sent out from Fort George by Captain Chipman to drive off what they supposed to be a marauding band of Indians, so that the mes- senger could get through. Sill had orders to follow the main road, but instead he took a route through the woods that allowed Carleton to get between him and the fort.
This attack on Carleton's rearguard was gallant but foolhardy. The men fought bravely but were quickly surrounded, and all except 14, who became detached in the melee, were killed or captured. With only fifteen soldiers left in the fort and but one cannon, Chipman stoutly resisted. Finally, almost out of ammunition, he surrendered under an offer of the following terms:
Article 1st. The troops of the garrison to surrender themselves prisoners of war.
Article 2d. That the women and children be permitted to return to their homes, with two wagons and their baggage.
Article 3d. Each officer shall be allowed their servants.
Article 4th. No Indian to enter the fort until a British detachment takes possession of the fort.
Article 5th. Major Carleton passes his honor that no levies in the fort shall be lost, nor any person be molested.
Article 6th. Each soldier to carry his knapsack.
Article 7th. Ensign Barrett shall be permitted to return home with his family and the regimental books, on giving his parole to Major Carleton.
While Carleton occupied himself with Fort George, flying parties of his Indians and Tories swept through Queensbury and northern Kings- bury capturing 18 of the inhabitants and applying the torch to every home, outbuilding, and mill in their path. A contemporary described it thus: "I beheld nothing about me but the remains of conflagrations; a few bricks, proof against the fire, were the only indication of ruined houses; whilst the fences still entire, and cleared out lands, announced these deplorable habitations had once been the abode of riches and happi- ness." The Warren County settlements, which had stoutly held out for five long years, were now entirely abandoned. There are no records of any town meetings in 1781 or 1782.
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Carleton, having burned Fort George and completed his mission of destruction elsewhere, embarked on Lake George and retired toward Ticonderoga. His expedition had killed twenty-seven "rebels," wounded two, and captured 118. Widespread havoc had been wrought, and the British had lost but three killed and four wounded. All this had little military significance except as a part of a larger plan that contemplated another invasion of the Hudson Valley. Washington reported to Congress: "It is thought, and perhaps not without foundation, that this incursion was made upon a supposition that Arnold's treachery had succeeded."
Although there were boats for Carleton and his prisoners of war, the captives of the Loyalists and red men were forced to trudge down the west shore of Lake George. In this party were James Higson, who had pre- viously been made prisoner in 1777 and released, Eben Fuller and his son Benjamin, Andrew Lewis, another son-in-law of Abraham Wing, old Moses Harris and his son, William. The Tories just missed capturing young Moses Harris, the American spy, who would have been considered the greatest prize of all.
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